Apart from the forest, another bonus of this trip was that delicious meals were provided. All us artists had to do was make art.

And, after a nice sustaining breakfast, that’s exactly what I did. I wasn’t there to gather material for later use. I was there to paint. It was a case of getting down to business.

Today, I hoped to paint two small oil paintings.

On recommendation from the organisers, I ventured to the Fern Village. My gear is portable, so it’s ready to go quickly. After being shown where to go and promising not to wander off, I picked an area to paint and set myself up. (Remember, there are no tracks, only tape marking where to head. A whistle was required for safety purposes. Locating a lost artist who was in the flow state, hypnotised by the forest, would not be easy if they didn’t have a whistle to alert searchers to their position!)

Finding a good design in a forest can be like getting lost in a maze because, one thing always leads to another even better one, ad infinitum! An artist must be firm with themselves to avoid:

1. Getting lost, and
2. Perpetually searching for the ideal image to create, while never actually starting anything!

Luckily, I avoided both.

The Fern Village was in a small valley, beside the road. Ferns love gullies and so do mosses. Greens abounded. Luckily, in this case, they were positioned in such a way as to help my painting design. Being in the gully under the trees there wasn’t much understory. The gully floor, with its warm browns, acted as a complement to the greens.

Some of the ferns (dicksonia antarctica) are impressively tall and substantial in these forests. They are very old, often growing with lovely curved, gestural “trunks.” You can utilise these curves and diagonals to your advantage in a painting. Add to that their ferny top notch of both live green and dried brown lacey fronds and they add considerable interest.

By lunch time I had my third painting of the trip.

After lunch, all fuelled up and ready to go, I headed down to Grandmother Myrtle. This big old myrtle towers, mossy and gnarly, way up into the forest canopy. Around its feet there were several artists’ tents. The ground was damp and quite clear of low plants. Though there was a miniature world of leaves, fungi, mosses, lichen and such. Grandmother Myrtle was the obvious subject and I set about painting her. Well, part of her trunk at least!

Where I was working it became quite dark and I wondered what effect that would have on the painting. I suspected (and hoped) that it might lead to brighter colour. (After all painting in bright sunlight can have the opposite effect of causing artists to create duller colour.)

Notice I had my umbrella set up because it did start to rain. I devised the set up mself. It still needs some refining, but so far, so good.

Here’s the finished painting.

As I wandered back up to the camp I looked forward to tomorrow. I wondered also, what were all the other artists up to? Our paths often crossed, but we didn’t always see each others’ work.